Why should I have a marketing plan?

Video Transcript

Terrie S. Wheeler: Well, having a marketing plan, for us, is really the core of our entire business model. PSM does business with individuals and firms who want to grow, who want to attract more revenue. Kristy and I believe strongly that you can’t do that if you don’t have a roadmap, if you don’t have a marketing plan that steps back and allows you to assess what’s working, what isn’t working, what have I done that has produced great results versus maybe things you’ve thrown money at because everyone else was doing it only to realize you’re not going to generate results that way.

So, having a marketing plan, again, organized around identifying your target audiences, who you’re really marketing to, as referral sources and as a client, as a prospective client. It’s looking at the key messages that you have to convey to those audiences. It’s looking at the objectives. What do you want to achieve in your marketing plan? As you know, objectives need to be specific and measurable and tied to a date, and they need to be realistic.

A marketing plan sets the tone. But then, in addition, the marketing plan is going to walk you through the four pillars of marketing in terms of what should you be doing to build and grow relationships with your existing clients, add new business to your practice, increase your name recognition and awareness in the marketplace, and ensure that you are communicating in a targeted way with all of your clients and contacts and referral sources.

From our perspective, the marketing plan is the core component of your future success. Because of that, we’ve put together a number of resources for you below. They’re webinars, they’re articles, they’re blog posts, they’re tip sheets. We want to help you take the next step with your marketing plan. Again, if there’s anything that you would like in terms of the materials from one of our webinars, just use the contact form and let us know and we’ll send you the corresponding materials. But we want you to know that if you do one thing in marketing, let it be to step back and put that marketing plan in place before you spend a lot of unnecessary money pursuing things that may or may not work for you.

Learn more about Terrie S. Wheeler.